As proud supporters of BTCC racer, Michael Crees, we like to keep you updated on his progress. ‘Creesy’, as he is known to fans, was making brilliant strides after the first half of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championships.
Knockhill in Scotland
The second half of the championship kicked off on the 30th and 31st July where Creesy was hoping to finish in the top three of the Independents and overall top 10. Unfortunately, he suffered some power issues which meant he had to settle for a best result of sixth in the independents and 16th overall instead. We are still impressed with that result, though! It was quite an eventful weekend of racing with a puncture and spin across the grass in the first race and the safety car out for another incident later on in the weekend. Michael said: “That wasn’t the weekend I’d hoped or planned for unfortunately, it’s been another weekend of what could’ve been! We brought quite a bit of confidence into Knockhill after the strong run in the tyre test at Snetterton, but it didn’t work out how we expected at all. We just seemed to struggle with the power all weekend, we probably did the best we could to be honest in terms of the results. “I’m happy with my overtaking again, I feel I’m driving well, but we need to work hard on the engine and especially for the Saturday so we can start nearer the front. We can’t fight on an equal footing at the moment, there is work to do to try and improve things before the next round at Snetterton in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the guys will find something and we’ll be in better shape.” The overall standings: 2022 BTCC Independents Trophy Standings 9th Michael Crees, 142pts 2022 BTCC Drivers Championship 20th Michael Crees, 27pts
Snetterton in Norfolk
The BTCC was back in Snetterton, Norfolk for a weekend of racing on the 13th and 14th August. Racing in the extreme summer heat made this race weekend tougher than expected for Creesy. With air temperatures over 30 degrees, the track was close to 40 degrees, made for very challenging conditions indeed. After the qualifying sessions Creesy found himself 18th on the grid. He raced hard and made his way up to 16th but unfortunately had to pull off the circuit when the oil pump clip broke which caused a leak and smoke to appear. Thankfully the issue didn’t require the help of a Lith-Ex AVD fire extinguisher but it did mean that he had to retire from this race. Starting at the back of the grid in 28th position on the next session, there was a lot of ground to make up – Creesy managed to finish 21st in this round. For the final race of the weekend, he was at the back of the grid again for the start of the race, but he made some great gains. By lap seven he had pushed back into the top 20 and finished the race in 18th position. Michael Crees: “The last race was fairly positive when you look at the pace, and the fact we came through pretty well from the back, but overall it has been another challenging and disappointing one. The extreme heat has been causing issues all weekend, you never knew from one session to the next how the car would perform so it’s been tough from that perspective. “With air temperatures of well over 30 degrees all weekend, inside the car it’s been physically tough as you can probably double the temperature to 60 degrees or more. We did what we could, some more bad luck unfortunately, but I do want to say a huge thank you to the fans who came out to support us. I always appreciate it but especially in this weather! All focus now is on Thruxton.” Overall standings: 2022 BTCC Independents Trophy Standings 9th Michael Crees, 159pts 2022 BTCC Drivers Championship 20th Michael Crees, 27pts 